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MG MGB GT V8 Factory Originals Technical - front suspension

What would be the result in handling if you could lower the top inner wishbone pivott, say one inch,I know it would give negative camber,but what else?

thanks Dave
Dave Lowe

Dave if you mean move the inner wishbone mounting up by 1 inch then its my understanding that the steering rack would have to be moved in the same direction and by the same ammount.

Ive played around with the front suspension quite a bit and you have to be really careful not to get bumpsteer.
One of my alterations involved fitting the track rod ends the other way, from below. The result was terrible bump steer.

I fitted a chrome bumper crossmember to my V8 and also lower springs. Ideally I would like to go another inch lower.

Let me know if you find a way.

Mark
Mark

I have to make a new front suspension something like the hoyle/hawk one and I can make the upper wishbone/coilover mount as I wish,so I am thinking what improvments I could make whilst I am at it,I realise the rack will need moving,I have a system to put it in the correct place.The MGB wishbones are fairly parallel.
Dave Lowe


If you move the pivot inward or outward a little at the same time, you might affect camber in complex ways because static camber is only part of the question. Camber will change as the chassis rolls thoughout turns. If the inclination of the inner pivots (forward to rearward) is changed, you'll notice that the car's behavior in "dive" is affected too.

You'd do very well to purchase and read the book "Tune to Win" by Carroll Smith. All of Smith's books are tremendously valuable. ("Prepare to Win" is so good I have two copies! "Engineer to Win" has lots of practical information relevant to large, heavy cars like MGB's... they're large and heavy compared to open-wheel racecars!) "Tune to Win" in particular does a brilliant job of explaining how to analyze suspension GEOMETRY changes.

Fred Puhn's "How to Make Your Car Handle" is also excellent, but Smith does a better job of explaining camber curves because he assumed you'd be designing suspensions from scratch. Puhn is full of practical information for modifying street cars.
Curtis

Certainly, without lengthening the arm, you would increase negative camber at ride height, but I believe you would also increase the RATE of camber gain even if you adjusted the length back to no camber at ride height. Also, you will alter the roll center of the front end, the roll couple and other items I don't pretend to understand. Also, down(??) a litttle so that its inner pivot point continues to intersect with the inboard upper and lower A-arm pivot points, and then lengthen the tie rod ends slightly to maintain the correct static toe-in.

Boy I wish there was some shareware software for suspension design. In one of the books, there is a "String computer" that shadetree designers can use to closely guesstimate how a design might work.
Brian Corrigan

Thanks guys,I shall be reading those books Curtis,I have done the string thing Brian and it does increase the negative by about half inch in two inches of travel!, the roll centre is about three inches above ground with the dropped arms,and in the ground with std mgb settings!
Dave Lowe

Whoops, part of my messaged got chopped.

I meant to say that: you might also have to move the steering rack down(??) a little so that its inner pivot point intersects with the inboard upper and lower A-arm pivot points....
Brian Corrigan

Should get 10 days demo a few more around

http://www.performancetrends.com/download.htm

Be aware that the concept that Carroll Smith describes in "Tune to Win" is incorrect in several respects:
Paul Wiley

Paul,

Curious to know, in what respects?

TIA

Brian
Brian Corrigan

This thread was discussed between 26/09/2006 and 06/10/2006

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